


Dream Bubbles

by juliaGlows (youreyestheyglow)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-21
Updated: 2013-01-21
Packaged: 2017-11-26 09:29:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/649119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youreyestheyglow/pseuds/juliaGlows
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jane runs from her problems and ends up with Bro.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dream Bubbles

The house receded behind me as I ran. I couldn’t really see. I smeared tears out of my eyes, but all that did was make me trip as I fell off-balance.

**_OBEY_ **

The noises of me kicking little rocks faded until all I could hear was the sounds of my feet hitting the ground. Or was that my heartbeat? No. There was no way anyone’s heart could beat that fast.

The noise overtook me. I couldn’t slow down, or the noise would. I couldn’t trip, or the noise would break. God forbid I stop.

But somehow it stopped anyway. The noise slowed down. It was my heartbeat. That was strange.

**_OBEY_ **

I was on my knees.

A slow pain started to burn up my legs. I stood up. Couldn’t stop now, could I?

Where _was_ I?

I turned in a circle.

Stretching the skin around my knees was a bad idea.

I couldn’t see my house.

I looked down at my pants. They were ripped and wet. I touched it. Were my knees bleeding? When had that happened?

**_OBEY_ **

Oh, right. I had fallen.

I sat down and scooched half a foot to put my back against a boulder, hissing as my legs straightened out.

The idiocy of my actions began to make itself apparent. I had run so far away from my house that I _couldn’t see it anymore_. How was that even possible? This planet didn’t even have _trees_. And now I was exhausted and hurt. I tried to examine my knees, but it was dark. I pulled my pants away from the cuts; if they started healing up with the jeans in them, it would be impossible to heal. Were there even any doctors here? Dirk had all those buildings around his house. Maybe there? I hadn’t been to his planet very much. Only once, in fact. He’d always been there with Jake and –

Nope. Nope nope nope. Nopenopenopenopenope. Not going there. Noooooootttt going there. “ _Not going there, not going there, not going there_ ,” I sang to myself.

Going home **_OBEY_** instead.

Noooooooo nonononono. That wasn’t a good place to go either.

Staying here.

That sounded acceptable.

It wasn’t _that_ cold.

What choice did I have anyway? I wasn’t going to run around searching for my house in the dark. **_OBEY_** I should probably find one of the little streams – they were _all over_ this planet – but what if I didn’t see it until I was in it? _What if I drowned_?

No. “Getting a little overdramatic, there.” I chastised myself. “What would Wall Swanson think?”

No. The best thing to do right now was to **_OBEY_** stay here until it got lighter again. The smartest thing to do was **_OBEY_** sleep. There was nothing wandering around here that might hurt me. I would be fine.

I leaned my head back against the boulder.

What if that little creep Caliborn was watching me again?

Oh my god.

I stood and **_OBEY_** crept around to the other side of the boulder. I swept the rocks into little piles around me. At least it would make it harder for him to get a good view.

What a rude boy. He almost made Jake look –

Never mind.

**_OBEY_ **

The rock in my hand was smooth. I rolled it around. It was strangely comforting.

 

My gold dreamer dress was comfortable. My knees didn’t hurt either.

I slid through a bubble. It felt strange, like **_OBEY_** taking a drink of freezing cold water and feeling it spread through your body.

It looked like I was **_OBEY_** in Dirk’s neighborhood – or floating above it, in any case – but I wasn’t on his planet, and he had said that his house was the only one left standing there. This was – his house was surrounded by buildings. I could still pick out his. It had an _aura_ about it.

I floated toward it. He was strifing with Lil’ Cal.

Was that Dirk?

He was wearing a cap.

And a white shirt, not the one I’d seen him in the last time I’d seen him.

Now that I was closer, he looked a lot bigger, too. Older.

**_OBEY_ **

Why wasn’t he strifing with one of his bots?

“Dirk?”

He turned around. There should be another word for the speed with which he turned around. He was facing the other way, and then he was looking at me in the sky.

He watched me float down.

It wasn’t him.

But it was. They had the same shades.

But it wasn’t.

**_OBEY_ **

“Most people call me Bro, kid.”

He had a slight southern drawl to his voice, just enough to make it sound smooth. But Dirk’s accent was more pronounced, and he had never called me kid before.

Wait. **_OBEY_** Bro? “But we’ve never called you that.”

His eyebrows pulled in for half a second. “Who are you? You look a lot like my little bro’s friend. John.”

“You don’t have a little brother. Dirk, are you all right?”

Suddenly his hands were wrapped tight around my shoulders. “What do you mean I don’t have a little brother? What happened to him?”

He was so close I could see his eyes behind his shades. They were _white_. “Oh my god, Dirk, are you dead? What happened to you? Did you…? Did Jake…?”

His hands were only squeezing tighter. “Jake Harley? He’s been dead for years now. What are you talking about? _Who are you_?”

“Harley? English! Jake English! John is my grandpa! Dave is your older brother! Jake English is alive! _Don’t you dare say he’s dead_!”

Dirk stared at me a second longer before he set me down. **_OBEY_** My feet hadn’t even been touching the ground. “Stop crying. We’ll figure this out.”

“I’m not –” Oh. Yes, yes I was crying. **_OBEY_** All these tears were draining.

I followed him inside. He was holding Lil’ Cal. Cal… like Caliborn. Calliope. Why hadn’t I noticed that before? **_OBEY_** Did it matter? Probably not.

Dirk set the doll down in a kitchen chair and grabbed two glasses out of the sink. “You want water?”

“Yes please.”

He filled the glasses from the sink and handed me mine. I followed him into the living room and pushed a couple puppets, one finished and the other only half-sewn, off of the chair. They had big butts and noses shaped like –

I blushed and stopped looking at them.

“Smuppets?”

“What?”

“You don’t know what smuppets are?”

“What are those?” **_OBEY_**

“The puppets.”

“The – oh.” I blushed again. At least the tears had stopped.

“All right. So let’s get this straight.” He set his glass on the floor. He hadn’t drunk any. He’d been trying to be hospitable. I had drunk half of mine at some point.

My little memory lapses _had_ to stop.

“You call me Dirk. You’ve always called me that.”

He paused and looked at me. I nodded.

“Dave isn’t my little brother. He’s my older brother.”

Another pause, another nod.

“You don’t know what smuppets are.”

I didn’t wait for him to pause before I nodded this time.

“John is your grandpa.”

Nod.

“Jake’s last name is English.”

Quick nod.

“You’re in love with Jake.”

Nod – wait. “You didn’t know?”

“I’m not your Dirk. What’s your name? Wait. Don’t tell me you’re Nanna? Jane?”

“Did you just call me _nanna_?” First I’m fat, now I’m a grandma?

“Jane?”

“Yes, I do prefer that to _nanna_.”

“Ok.” His mouth twitched.

“You know what? I’m done with this. I’m going to leave now. Good-bye.”

I set my glass down as forcefully as I could without breaking it and stood, but there he was, moving too fast to be normal **_OBEY_** again, one hand on my elbow, sitting me down. He sat next to me, presumably to keep me from leaving.

“Wait. You don’t know what’s going on here, but I think I do.”

“Oh really now, do you.”

“The scratch.”

“The scratch. Well, isn’t that descriptive. Please, speak more cryptically.”

“It means that I lived in the universe before yours. And something happened, I assume, that switched our roles. In my universe, you were John’s Nanna. I was Dave’s older brother. Jake Harley – English – was Jade’s grandpa. Do you know Roxy?”

“Yes.”

“She was Rose’s mom.”

“Jade is Jake’s grandma.”

“Exactly. What did Dave do in your universe? Is he all right?”

“Well – he killed – well – you have to understand, this is coming from what Dirk – you – told me. I don’t actually know. He – he killed the two presidents? But they weren’t important, just the Batterwitch’s henchmen. And then he disappeared. Dirk – you – thinks he died.”

He took off his shades and rubbed his eyes. “Dave is dead.” His voice was flat.

“Well – I mean – I – yes.”

He sighed.

“How – I don’t want to pry – but…”

“How did I die.”

“Yes.”

“I was trying to protect everyone else. But if they restarted the session, I guess it didn’t matter anyway. It’s strange, though. I haven’t seen anyone. I’d have thought that they’d have come to see me... that they’d have ended up in here at some point or another… sorry, kid. I’m rambling. Tell me about your session.”

“It’s fine if you want to talk, I’m –”

“Tell me about your session.”

His statement had an air of finality about it. I took a deep breath. “Well… it… hasn’t been going so well.” I glanced up at him. His white eyes were more unnerving than his orange ones had ever been. I looked down at my hands. “We can’t reach the gate-things in the sky. We never built up our houses. We’re not getting a lot of grist. Our sprites suck. Mine _destroyed itself_. We’ve been in this game forever and I haven’t seen my dad since I entered the medium and he might be _dead_ and Jake won’t SHUT HIS GODDAMN MOUTH and I haven’t seen Dirk in such a long time, _such_ a long time, and I was so mean to Roxy I said things no one should ever say to their friends and the Batterwitch is evil and I can’t say she’s not because she’s IN MY HEAD AND I CAN’T GET HER OUT and I just want all of us to be friends and I want my dad back!” I was crying on his shoulder. When had that happened? He was shoosh-papping me. Was he really shoosh-papping me? That was a little weird. I’d never thought of Dirk like that. But he was, really; he was a nice guy. I just didn’t like him because he was dating Jake. “I just…” I hiccupped and pulled away so I could wipe my nose. “I just don’t understand what we’re supposed to be doing. Are we supposed to have more guidance? How could anyone figure this out on their own?”

“You should have your guardians, but most of them seem to be… out of commission. The sprites should know a lot too. Make them talk. That’s really about it, kid.” He rubbed his temples. “I wish I could come back with you… do something instead of sitting around all day long, waiting.”

“I’ll come back to visit,” I offered.

He huffed. “I don’t think you can control where you go… you probably need help for that.”

“Well, I can _try_ , at the very least,” I countered. “It would be stupid not to try.”

Bro stood and picked me up with him. “Then go ahead and fix your session, and come back when you can stay and talk for a little while. See if you can bring your Dirk with you, I wanna know what my little bro did with his life.”

“Thank you. I’m sorry I brought such bad news.” I wrapped my arms around his waist. If Dirk grew up to be this, he was going to be growing a lot. Dirk was scrawny.

Bro patted my back. He didn’t seem to understand how to give a hug. I thought of Dirk, always so awkward and stand-offish. Maybe that wasn’t so much his upbringing as his personality. What would they do if they met? Stand around and nod at each other?

Bro showed me the door and I took my leave of him. I drifted out of the dream bubble.

**_OBEY._ **

**_NO._ **


End file.
